The proposed research falls into two parts, each addressing a basic issue in episodic memory. The first concerns a way in which memory traces for episodes may be described. It is proposed to puruse a new approach, in which the trace of an episode is described in terms of the probabilites with which the episode will be recollected in response to various classes of retrieval cues. A number of experiments are outlined. They will (a) test an important assumption behind the technique for deriving the trace description, (b) explore the possibility of extending the technique to derive richer descriptions, and (c) investigate the effects on the memory trace of several experimental variables. The second part of the proposal concerns the conditions under which episodes are forgotten. A general descriptive theory of forgetting is presented, according to which recall is assumed to be mediated by retrieval cues whose efficiency decreases as the number of items they subsume increases. Thus forgetting occurs when the retrieval cues become overloaded. Proposed experiments will, among other things, explore the nature of these retrieval cues. Some potential implications of this research for various forms of memory malfunction are noted.